Automated Regression Testing: The Best Way To Ensure
Stability & Quality With Each New Software Release

By John R. Fox, Vice President of Marketing
SWAT Solutions, Inc.

Today’s Software Testing Landscape

You’re just about to wrap-up another lengthy and demanding software development project.  The last sections of code are nearly ready to go.  Your developers have been working extra hours for the past several weeks.  All that’s left before product release is testing and integration. 

Hold on!  All that lies ahead is testing and integration.  Most people in your organization dread testing.  There aren’t enough dedicated testing resources.  No one really has the expertise to use the testing tools properly and besides everyone has had enough of the project already.

If this sounds a bit too familiar, don’t worry.  It’s typical of numerous software development groups.  Software testing is the sore spot for many otherwise stellar software development organizations.  Why?  Well, unless you have enough devoted, trained staff with the proper testing tools, testing can be a fruitless undertaking. 

Bona fide software testing rarely occurs in many companies and that’s too bad, since high-quality testing can yield several long-term, powerful benefits. 

According to the International Institute for Software Testing, testing is the only activity that gets shortened or eliminated to meet budget and time constraints.

Automated Regression Testing to the Rescue!

Automated Regression Testing is basically just a fancy term for writing, and electronically storing test scripts that can be used repeatedly against subsequent releases of a software product. 

Automated Regression Testing is an entire discipline onto itself.  It includes the ability to create Data Driven tests, check the response of GUI objects, add test synchronization for timing of certain events, and even the checking of bit map contents.  The following paragraphs briefly explain each of these concepts in more detail.

Data driven tests allow testers to see how the application reacts to different data inputs from a database.  This lets testers simulate many types of possible user interactions and is great for creating both positive and negative test cases.

GUI, or Graphical User Interface, Objects are the text boxes, buttons, and drop-down lists that users interact with in many applications.  Checking if these respond properly to both valid and invalid inputs is critical to a positive user experience.

Applications don’t always respond to events immediately.  They may have to wait for a database lookup or for a window to refresh.  Test synchronization allows you to plan in advance for these types of events in your automated test scripts.

Many applications have embedded pictures or graphs.  A company logo is a good example.  Bit map checking allows you to compare these images pixel by pixel to ensure that the correct image is properly displayed.

Benefits of Automated Testing

Well it doesn’t take Einstein to see the obvious benefits of Automated Regression Testing, but let’s review all of them, as some are more subtle than others:

Long-Term Cost Savings

This is the obvious benefit.  If you know that a software product will likely have more than 3 or 4 releases, you’ll probably realize significant cost savings over the life of the project by employing Test Automation.  Some larger software projects could see respectable cost savings with as few as two product releases.

Test Coverage

Knowing that all of your core feature sets are being fully tested with each new release lets Project Managers get the rest they need at night.

Consistency

Having confidence that your test cases are consistent from release to release ensures that features work properly from release to release.  Customers have a hard time understanding why something that worked in one release now isn’t working in the New and Improved version of the software.

Time to Release

Once a core set of tests is automated, the time to final product release once software development is finalized is much shorter in duration.  This benefits the entire team, because at this point in the process additional delays can be real morale killers.

Confidence in Release Dates

Having confidence in new product release dates is critical for management in predicting future revenue streams and for internal budgeting purposes.  It doesn’t hurt developer’s vacation schedules either.

Client Trust

Perhaps the biggest benefit that comes with automated testing is the fact that your customers will trust your new software product releases and will feel better about the value they’re receiving from their software maintenance dollars. They’ll also be more likely to purchase other software products and services from your organization.

Summary

While many organizations fear and even avoid the testing process, implementing Automated Regression Testing could uplift not only your team’s morale and bottom line as well.

About SWAT Solutions:  SWAT Solutions has been providing complete software testing services for over 5 years.  During this time they’ve mastered the art and science of test automation, knowing not just how to automate, but when to automate.  To learn more, visit SWAT Solutions at http://www.SWATSolutions.com.

About the Author:  John R. Fox is Vice President of Marketing for SWAT Solutions.  John has over 22 years of experience in the software business and he claims to have held every software position known at one point in his career.